


Got My Number

by artificialashley



Series: GMN Universe [1]
Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Branjie, Exes, F/F, Lesbian AU, University AU, british au, rpdr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23445502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artificialashley/pseuds/artificialashley
Summary: The first night out after returning home for Easter break seems promising for Brooke. However, things take a turn when she drinks a little too much and bumps into her ex-girlfriend, Vanessa. (Normal text is present day and italics is the night they met).
Relationships: Brooke Lynn Hytes/Vanessa Vanjie Mateo
Series: GMN Universe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1771708
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Got My Number

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again! It seems that self isolation has brought me back to the world of fanfic to help me cope and I have a lot to catch up. Oh how I’ve missed everyone. Hope you enjoy some of my shitty writing. Sending multitudes of gratitude to Meggie for beta-ing. Love Ashley xoxo

“This game does not work when there’s only three of us.” Brooke finished off her drink, a crafty mixture of vodka, some blue alcopop and lemonade, before flicking the card in her best friend’s face.

“It’s not Nina’s fault we lost half of our group,” Yvie retaliated, never afraid to breach the most awkward and painful topics that others wouldn’t dare to mention.

Most wouldn’t have noticed the crack in Brooke’s face, for it only lasted a second, but it was still there nonetheless; big, gaping and ready to break backs.

“Wow-wow.” Nina raised her hands, her motherly nature taking centre stage. “I will not have any of this bickering on our first night out back home.”

“I’ve missed winding you two up.” Brooke grinned and held a hand out to each girl - grateful that they were still here for her when she returned home for Easter break, grateful that they had given her the kick up the arse she needed to go out and have fun, grateful for the support they had given her when she lost the crazy little flame that kept her candle lit.

“Reckon you’ll pull tonight then, Brooke?” Yvie nudged her friend with her shoulder, only to underestimate her strength and the amount her friend had drunk so far, sending Brooke toppling back onto the floor in a fit of giggles.

“I haven’t pulled since year 13 so I highly doubt it,” Brooke brushed her friend off, thinking of how much she used to love flirting and being free, of how quickly that had changed.

An all-knowing silence filled the air, everyone remembering the night that Brooke and Vanjie first got together. 

Brooke poured herself another glass of the blue concoction - only this time without any lemonade.

“She doesn’t need to pull.” Nina raised a glass. “We can have fun as the three of us!”

“As long as all of us actually get in.” Yvie pointed an acrylic nail towards the blonde, who was starting to neck her drink as if she only had moments to live.

“I’m fine.” Brooke brushed off in the most unconvincing manner - the only logic in her brain being that the more she drank and the faster she did it the easier it would be to stop thinking about Vanjie for just one night.

Oh, how wrong that girl was.

_ *** _

_ Brooke could hear the clipping of her heels on the pavement as she rushed down towards the club, too sober to justify the five minute Uber journey. Probably too sober to be leaving in the first place after she had spent the hour she had to pre-drink removing and redoing her eyeliner until it was perfect without so much as tasting a sip of alcohol.  _

_ Nevertheless, she was ready to party, begging her beloved best friends to buy her a pitcher as she hurried to meet them. Ready to dance and forget all about her impending A-Levels - getting as many drinks from horny spice boys as she could simply through tossing her long hair over one shoulder and giving them the classic flirty Brooke wave. _

_ Maybe she’d go home with one, maybe she wouldn’t. _

_ About to tell Nina to make it two pitchers instead of one, she was stopped in her tracks by the sight of a shorty and sulky Latina talking to herself on the curb of the road. _

_ Brooke didn’t know what it was that made her stop. _

_ Maybe it was the tears in the girl's eyes that she clung to despite gravity fighting for them to fall, maybe it was the frustration in her grizzly voice, maybe it was the way her red dress complimented her skin tone as if it were picked from a colour wheel just for her. _

_ Maybe it was all of those things combined. _

_ “Are you alright?” Brooke placed a tentative hand on the girls back. _

_ “Brooke Lynn?” The girl looked up, drawing her cigarette away from her mouth as she took in the glamazonian blonde giant who towered above her. Sensing Brooke’s confusion she spoke again: “My friends are all in your year at sixth form: Silky, Akeria…” _

_ “Oh.” A light dinged in Brooke’s head. “You’re the girl who got kicked out in the first week of term for-” _

_ “Yes, that’s me.” The girl scrunched her face in frustration towards Brooke which made her want to giggle. “And I’m back there now, bitch, so don’t even.” _

_ “Sorry, I’ll leave you be.” Brooke remembered her friends and the big jug of Purple Rain that had her name on it. _

_ “Wait,” the girl called, her voice cracking with a plea of desperation, the sassy tone from before quickly dropped into the drain next to her along with the stub of her cigarette. _

_ Brooke stopped in her tracks yet again. “Yeah?” _

_ “Can you help me find my phone?” _

_ *** _

Vanessa’s pulse began to beat in time with the music as she moved closer and closer towards the speaker, sacrificing the ringing of death she’d hear the next morning to go to speak to her girls.

Never the most articulate in school, Vanessa hadn’t expected to fall in love with University life the way she had this year. From the shopping trips to the bar crawls she had thrown herself into the experience headfirst - pushing her home and the girl she left behind as far away as she could by immersing herself in every activity, club, and night out she could partake in. 

It was safe to say that this coping mechanism did not work when she was back at home; the walls around her holding a thousand or more memories of sloppy kisses and drunk dancing - closing in on her more and more till she was almost slapped across the face with the fact that her Nicholas Sparks romance had been cut short and never finished, the pages recycled into a much more lonely tale.

There was the spot where Brooke had pushed a rugby player almost clean off his feet for falling into Vanessa.

The sofa they sat on when glass slipped into her pump and Brooke had to bandage her up with blue roll and piggyback her all the way home.

The DJ who was sick to death of Vanessa requesting the first song she and Brooke had ever danced to every single Friday until he added into his queue automatically without her having to ask.

“Imma go for a smoke.” She motioned to the door - breaking her new year's resolution that she’d managed to abide by for three whole months.

Scanning the crowd she quickly spotted a half-cute boy pulling a bag of baccy from his coat pocket.

Bingo.

The old Vanjie never got with strangers on nights out, never settled for someone she didn’t feel that spark with - you know, the one from all the teen romance movies. She was a romantic at heart.

That started to change after she broke up with Brooke; if the girl she loved more than anything in the world wasn’t going to give her _ The Notebook _ then nobody was. 

She found herself sleeping with more people at Uni - the type of people who called her beautiful but wouldn’t make eye contact in the library the following week, but she didn’t even care, she wanted to be more like Brooke was: more carefree, more independent, taking a shard from the ice queen’s castle.

But it was never the same.

As much as the thought made her want to shove her own head in a blender at how cringe she was, Vanessa had learnt the difference between fucking and making love.

Before she knew it the boy was rolling the paper for her, her mouth autopiloting her conversation, the feeling of his arm around her simply a feeling - not warm, not cold, not uncomfortable, not loving.

Brooke would have probably told her off right now, making some sort of shady comment about how her voice didn’t need to get any deeper and she didn’t need to take any more years of her life, kissing her forehead after to let her know it was only in jest.

She told herself that those days were long gone. That the Brooke who worried about her, teased her and loved her was overshadowed by the Brooke who didn’t know how to be in a relationship. 

The day they broke up popped into her body, a bitter taste making her skin crawl. The three 

unanswered calls it had taken for her girlfriend to finally answer. The short blunt replies she received. The flirty comments left on Brooke’s photos by half of the netball team. The even flirtier replies Brooke would respond with.

“Sorry, Vanj, I’m just really hungover,” she remembered Brooke saying, the first time she’d heard her voice for a while. The words piercing her skin like a needle when she realised that her girlfriend had forgotten their anniversary, the presents she had sent clearly living with the porters instead of Brooke.

The final straw.

She remembered being shocked at herself when she said that she couldn’t do it anymore. But the words slipped out in anger and she was too stubborn to take them back.

She remembered the heavy sound of Brooke’s breathing when she hung up the phone - deleting her number and taking away every chance that she had to fight for her. 

The sound of her defeated voice rang in her ear, only it took Vanessa a second to realise it wasn’t just in her memory.

_ *** _

_ “Are you sure she said she was in here?” Brooke gave Vanessa a pointed look as they stood on the outskirts of the dance floor, starting at the masses of people before them. _

_ “She said she had my phone here and she had a blue top on,” Vanessa repeated, part of her finding entertainment in the way she was irritating the older girl. _

_ “And you didn’t think to ask her name or anything else before she stopped answering your calls?” _

_ “Sorry, mami.” Vanessa shrugged as she watched a layer of blush form on Brooke’s cheeks at her nickname. “We can ask the DJ to do a shout out?” _

_ Before she knew it Brooke had turned and began to dive her way through the crowd reaching back to hold Vanessa’s hand. _

_ It could have been the dark fruits or her affinity for romance and fate acting up but Vanessa could have sworn their hands slotted together like lock and key. _

_ She watched as Brooke took command of their path, pushing aside anyone who fell in Vanessa’s way before asking the DJ if he could make an announcement.  _

_ No luck. _

_ Just as they were about to make their way back through the crowd, Vanessa heard the first beats of a familiar tune and squealed with excitement. _

_ “This is my song! We have to dance!” _

_ “What?” Brooke looked flabbergasted at the girl who had seemed to forget how upset she was at losing her phone and friends within five seconds of a pop song. _

_ “Dance,” Vanessa told her, a command not a question.  _

_ Screaming the words she allowed the crowd to envelop Brooke and herself, watching a half-smile form on the other girls face at her tone-deaf screeching.  _

_ “This is horrendous,” Brooke spoke into Vanessa’s ear - the feel of her breath heightening every sense. _

_ “You love it,” Vanessa responded, a form of confidence washing over her body telling her to put her arms around the blonde's waist and move closer, dancing as two halves of one body, the pair of them their own entity. _

_ “I’m sorry I ruined your night,” Vanessa half-shouted as the song ended. _

_ “You haven’t,” Brooke responded without thought. “Why don’t we get pizza next door and try to ring again once the club shuts? I’m sure she’ll look at the phone then.” _

_ “That sounds like heaven.” _

_ *** _

“No!” Brooke tried to swat Nina’s hand away. “We need to go back in and have fun.”

“The bouncers told me that if I didn’t take you home then they would. C’mon Brooke, we can Uber it.”

“I’m not going.” Brooke sat herself down on one of the benches, almost getting her arm burned by the girl next to her.

“Well, you have to, it’s not up to me.” Nina wasn’t even mad at the way she had to baby her friend, knowing they would have a good laugh about it for the rest of the Easter holidays and maybe even a while after that.

“Fine.” Brooke pursed her lips and stood back up. “But you’re not coming with me, I want you to go in there and get yourself a shag. I know you fancy Bob’s sister. Do it for me, Nina, I’m living through you!”

“I’m coming with you, just let me find Yvie.”

“Nooooooo.”

At that moment a familiar voice snapped Brooke’s eyes into a clearer vision.

There she was. Her devil in a leopard print jumpsuit.

“I’ll look after her.” Vanessa placed a friendly hand on Nina’s arm, missing the way her friendship group had been torn apart since their breakup. Regretting the way she cut off every and any link to the girl she was in love with.

“Oh hi.” Nina smiled awkwardly, pausing before asking Vanessa if she was sure.

“You’re not real.” Brooke opened her mouth at the girl before closing it again. “Your Uni shuts a week later. You can’t trick me, I Googled it.”

That’s when Brooke saw the smile.

The cheeky grin that showed off almost every single tooth Vanessa owned. The smile she would wake up to that told her that everything in the world would be just fine. Nothing in the world made her feel happier than that smile - she didn’t know why the sight of it made tears start to roll down her face but it did.

“Strikes.” Vanessa started to wipe Brooke’s tears away as though she were a paper doll, Brooke unable to read the emotion on her face. “Your Mam’s gonna kill you if you go home like this. Let’s get some food in you, yeah?”

_ *** _

_ “I remember seeing you at a house party before, Silky’s birthday,” Vanessa started after swallowing the world's biggest mouthful of pepperoni pizza and garlic sauce, a tiny bit sticking to her lips. _

_ Brooke wiped it off by instinct, not stopping to question why she felt so close to a girl she had only just met. _

_ “Is that so?” Brooke asked, assuming that the girl was chatting drunk shit like she often did when she wanted to impress someone. _

_ “Aha,” Vanjie nodded, “You were wearing this white lacy dress and I remember thinking you looked like a ballerina. And then you were sick in the kitchen sink and the bendy girl got annoyed at you but I remember thinking that she wasn’t doing a good job at holding your hair back and I could have done better.” _

_ Brooke placed the slice of pizza she was about to bite into back into the box, amazed at how the ditzy girl had managed to remember her so well. _

_ “Not my finest hour.” Brooke laughed. _

_ “Tonight hasn’t been mine.” The girl laughed back, her brain slipping into a more sober state. _

_ Her laugh sounded like a car alarm. Brooke wanted to put it in a jar and have it wake her up on lazy mornings. _

_ “I’m sure you can repay me at some point.” Brooke smiled - Vanessa’s grin an infectious curse that you couldn’t help but surrender to. _

_ “Bitch, I just bought you half of this pizza!” _

_ “I meant in other ways.” _

_ Normally Brooke would blame it on the drink. The longing to have someone's body, the longing to hold them, even the longing to simply spend time with them. But right then she was stone cold and wanted nothing more than to spend the next day, the day after then and every day that followed listening to Vanessa chat shit and tease her. _

_ “I taste of garlic,” Vanessa blurted out to the girl, her no-filter mouth spilling out the first panic that came to her mind at the thought of kissing the beautiful blonde creature in front of her. _

_ “I mean, so do I.” Brooke laughed and moved closer to the girl, forgetting about the world around them and feeling her soft cheek against her palm. _

_ Before she was snapped back to reality by a phone call. The phone call she had waited all night for that she now wished had never come. _

_ “Cockblock.” Vanessa laughed before grabbing Brooke’s phone and aggressively interrogating the girl on the other end. _

_ *** _

“Feeling better?” Vanessa asked her ex-girlfriend/first love/girl she was certainly still in love with as she waited for her to swallow her mouthful of pizza, surprised at how easily she had fallen back into being with her.

“A little,” Brooke responded, not meeting her eyes properly.

“You want me to take you back now?” Vanessa asked, figuring that sitting with her was the last thing Brooke wanted to do now, whether she’d bought her food or not.

“Not yet.” Brooke took a large swig from the Diet Coke Vanessa had bought her, finally meeting her eyes. “I wanna chat about David.”

Vanessa felt a lilt of panic rise in her body. 

Had Brooke found a new boyfriend? 

She shouldn’t be jealous - she broke up with her, she had slept around. But the thought of someone else running their hands through Brooke’s hair and planting her sloppy kisses made some form of heat rise up through her chest into her throat.

“David?” she managed to choke out - the hardest two syllables she’d ever had to conjure.

“Yeah, David. Shona dumped him!” Brooke slurred a little, turning to face Vanessa for the first time since they sat down in the shop.

“You hate  _ Corrie _ .” Vanessa started to laugh at the thought of Brooke spending however long watching the soap. “You used to say it was a load of utter shite - the bane of your Friday night!”

“I do.” Brooke nodded in agreement. “But it makes me think of you.”

Something about the thought of her ex-girlfriend sitting down three nights a week to watch a show she despised just because it reminded her of their time together managed to warm and break Vanessa’s heart simultaneously.

“Well.” Vanessa looked at her, really looked at her. “I’m sad David and Shona aren’t together anymore. Even though he was a dick to her and didn’t really treat her right, I wish she’d given him more of a chance to work at it instead of running scared.”

“You’re right, he was a dick.” Brooke looked back, her almost grey eyes showing a maturity that Vanessa hadn’t seen during their relationship. “Maybe when I’m sober we can talk about how much he still loves her. But how he knows now that that’s not everything, he knows he needs to appreciate her. I know I need to appreciate you.”

And Vanessa knew that it wasn’t perfect. She knew that both of them would have to try, that the Notebook had its own ups and downs to get to the good bit. She knew there was more talking to be done, more apologies to be given on both of their behalfs. But right then she wanted to forget about that and simply kiss the girl she loved and missed.

In the movies, the big romantic moment always happened somewhere beautiful. Cady kissed Aaron in the middle of the dancefloor with that stupid crown on her head. Noah kissed Ali in the rain next to a swan filled lake. Cher kissed Josh in the perfect centre of that ornate staircase. 

Vanessa wouldn’t have given up their tiny bench in a greasy takeaway table for any of that because Brooke’s lips simply felt like home.

“Ugh.” She grimaced away after, looking away from Brooke.

“Oh, erm, sorry. I thought... ” Brooke responded, a panicked look crossing her face.

“Garlic.” Vanessa put a hand to her mouth and grinned, a sense of warmth coming to her at the thought of being able to wind Brooke up again just like she used to, watching her face change when she realised Vanessa’s joke and swatted her arm.

“You little bitch. I actually believed you there.” Brooke laughed before pulling Vanessa in for one more kiss regardless. A kiss that she’d later think about as the second-best kiss of her life.

“Let’s get you in a taxi.” Vanessa read the looks of the staff behind the counter and grabbed Brooke’s hand.

“Are we gonna talk in the morning?” Brooke asked hopefully, scared that drunken words may have turned into regret on Vanessa’s behalf.

“You’ve got my number.”

_ *** _

_ “So, thanks again for helping me find this.” Vanessa looked down at her phone. _

_ Three minutes till her Uber arrived. _

_ “It’s fine.” Brooke brushed her off. “I probably would have had a shit night in the club anyway. At least I got some pizza out of it.” _

_ “Yeah.” Vanessa laughed, letting an awkward silence linger. “Two minutes.” _

_ “Oh,” Brooke said looking at the phone then back at Vanessa, a train of thought clearly chugging through her brain that was too fast for Vanessa to capture. _

_ “Fuck it.” _

_ She threw her arm around the back of Brooke’s head in one fell swoop, letting her other hand caress her cheek as they kissed. _

_ Brooke was taken aback at first, but soon Vanessa felt her hand on the curve of her back and felt the girl's body almost melt into her own. _

_ “Oh shit.” Vanessa heard the phone ring and looked next to her to see her Uber waiting. “Cockblocked again.”  _

_ Brooke laughed as Vanessa squeezed her hand and started to make her way towards the car. “I’ll text you in the morning?” she shouted after the girl who had just given her the best kiss of her life, more of a needy question than a statement. _

_ “You’ve got my number,” Vanessa winked before closing the door and blowing a kiss to Brooke, thinking about how the story of her night would make the best teen romance movie. _

  
  



End file.
